Frontside 360 Shuvit

Category

Shuvits

Learn first

Frontside Shuvit

Use

Mellow kicktails

Difficulty

4/10

Speed

Medium

Avoid

Long boards

Frontside 360 Shuvit

Category

Shuvits

Learn first

Frontside Shuvit

Use

Mellow kicktails

Difficulty

4/10

Speed

Medium

Avoid

Long boards

Frontside 360 Shuvit

Category

Shuvits

Learn first

Frontside Shuvit

Use

Mellow kicktails

Difficulty

4/10

Speed

Medium

Avoid

Long boards

Okay, let’s get the obvious and unhelpful bit out of the way: the frontside 360 shuvit is like a regular frontside shuvit, only you kick it a bit harder.

That said, there are some techniques and suggestions we can give you to help you make that jump.

And yes, like most shuvits on this site, this is going to spin off the nose. The reason for this is simple: by using the front wheels as the pivot point, you can repurpose your rolling momentum instead of fighting it. Just don’t pop – this isn’t a nollie!

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-00

Your starting position is fairly relaxed on this one – just make sure your front foot is on the center of the nose, slightly angled, and your back foot is right at the back of the board, comfortably against the curve of the kicktail. I like to be able to feel the kicktail against the side of the foot.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-01

My shoulders should be in line with the deck as I start the trick. I might pull my back shoulder backwards slightly to “prewind” – pre-empting the forwards movement – but other than that, everything should be parallel and centered.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-02

You can see here that two things happen at once – first, I start shifting my weight forwards. My hips have moved slightly towards the nose as I press down with my front foot. Secondly, my back shoulder has pushed forward, leading the rotation.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-03

This part feels like the start of an endover – I push down with my front foot and push the tail forwards with my back foot. The significant difference is that I’m not going to let my shoulders follow it after a certain point.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-04

As the board gets to 90º, I let go of it, jumping upwards and slightly forwards. Notice I’m still leaning in the direction of travel slightly, trying to get ahead of the board. You can see how much my back foot has kicked out at this point.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-05

This, to me, is the classic frontside shuvit position. Whether you’re spinning 360º, 540º, or even 720º, you should end up in this airwalk-style pose. Note that I’m not jumping too high, though. Frontside shuvits have a tendency to flip – if I jump too high, I can’t control that.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-06

The board’s drifted past the 180 mark and I’m still hovering above it. I’m also bringing my feet back towards a normal riding position, but my front foot hasn’t moved as far forward as it should do. Don’t worry about that – there’s still plenty of time to get that foot in place.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-07

The back foot wants to take control and “catch” this trick, stopping the rotation. However, before it stops it dead, it needs to be low enough for the board to “skim” across the bottom of it, preventing any slight flipping motions from getting out of control.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-08

Finally, the back foot makes full contact, catching the board just behind the back truck. You don’t want a perfectly “bolts” catch – if you can get used to catching just slightly on the tail, you stand a chance of correcting any under-rotation with a slight pivot.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-09

My front foot now decides it’s ready to rejoin the board, and makes contact with the griptape in a roughly natural riding position. If you look closely, I’m still on just the back wheels at this point – make sure you keep your head down and over this trick, or it’d be easy to shoot out and fall over backwards here.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-10

This is an awkward-looking frame, but you can see here how I’m physically pushing down the front end of the board to prevent myself from rolling away in a wheelie. I do this without realising nowadays. You might have to make a mental note to keep your front leg straight for a second on landing if you’re having that problem.

Frontside-360-Shuvit-Sequence-11

Finally, I relax both knees, and disappear out of the right of the frame with a grin on my face. I never get tired of doing this trick.

Additional Notes

Unlike backside shuvits, this should feel fairly natural with a kicknose, and therefore most modern skaters – particularly those who’ve already spent time standing sideways for ollie tricks – should find this fairly natural. However, don’t get into the habit of thinking of it as a “nollie trick”; remember that you’re not trying to pop, and the board shouldn’t lose contact with the floor at all for a frontside 360 shuvit. That’s part of the reason you want to start with your feet so far apart – it’ll limit the amount the tail can lift off the floor. This is something which will get even more important if you start building up to larger shuvits or gazelles in this direction!

Needless to say, while the 180 frontside shuvit could be done on more or less any board, by the time you get to 360º of rotation, excessively long boards become quite difficult to spin. A steep nose will also make this feel heavier and more awkward than it needs to be. You really want a wheelbase which feels comfortable between your feet; unless you have stupidly long legs, having to stretch past a 14″ wheelbase for these feels horrible, and it just won’t look as smooth or natural to do.

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